In the building construction industry, it is common to install pavers on roof tops to turn roof tops into useful spaces. The pavers are very often installed on plastic pedestals. The pedestals are used not only because they can be used to adjust the heights of the pavers to turn a sloped roof top to a leveled roof top, but also because they provide space between the pavers and the rooftop so pipes and wires can be laid beneath the pavers. In the past, there have been incidents when strong hurricane winds lifted pavers on roof tops and caused the pavers to fall from the rooftop to the streets. This is a serious threat to public safety. To solve this problem, several solutions have been offered.
One of the solutions offered is to glue the pavers down to the pedestals. However, since the pavers are glued to the pedestals, it would be impossible to lift the pavers if repair workers need to access the wires or pipes beneath the pavers.
Another solution offered is to leave screw holes on the corners of the pavers, and use screws to secure the pavers to the pedestals. This solves the safety problem and, at the same time, allows repair workers to easily remove the screws and lift the pavers if they need to access the wires and pipes beneath the pavers. However, the use of screw holes detracts from the aesthetic value of the whole installation. Even though the manufacturer provides caps to cover the screw holes, and the color of the caps are close to the color of pavers, the rows and columns of caps still destroy the beauty of the natural looking pavers. This is why many architects do not like this solution.
Yet another solution offered is to glue a piece of plastic plate to the bottom side of each corner of the paver. The plastic has a tab sticking out from the corner. A cross shaped plastic piece is used to hold down the four tabs from the four pavers on the same pedestal. The cross shaped plastic piece has a screw hole in the middle so a screw can be used to secure the cross shaped plastic piece to the center of the pedestal. The cross shaped plastic piece and the screw are inside the open joint between pavers. Therefore, this solution allows for easy removal of the pavers by unscrewing the screws, and it does not affect the look of the whole paver systems since screws are hidden inside the open joints. However, this solution also has a drawback. In this solution, the tabs on four pavers are all held down by one small screw. Since the open joint is usually 5 mm ( 3/16″), the diameter of the screw head needs to be less than 5 mm. This means the threads on the screw and on the inside surfaces of the screw holes in the plastic pedestal are very fine. The fine threads inside the plastic screw hole would not be strong enough to withstand the lifting force from the four pavers to prevent the strong hurricane wind from lifting the pavers.
The present disclosure provides a solution to address all the problems described above: it will lock down the pavers to the pedestals to prevent wind from lifting the pavers; there are no visible parts or screw holes that may affect the look of the paver installation; it is easy to use a simple tool such as a screw driver to unlock the pavers so repair workers can access the wires and pipes beneath the pavers; and it is much stronger and more reliable than the systems that rely on one small screw to hold down four pavers.
Exemplary embodiments in the present disclosure include the use of a 1.2-1.5 mm thick galvanized steel sheets. The galvanized steel sheets are glued to the back of the paver. Testing has shown that gluing 1.2 mm thick galvanized steel sheets to the back of the paver makes the paver very hard to break. And even when a paver installed on pedestal breaks, a person can still safely stand on top of the paver since the galvanized steel sheet is strong enough to support the weight of the person and prevent the broken paver and the person from falling of the pedestals. Therefore, the present invention not only provides safety against wind uplifting, but also provides additional safety against personal injury from possible paver breakage.